I take my camera along almost everywhere I go. The beauty of a digital camera is that the photos don't cost anything, so I'll take a photo of any old thing that catches my eye - the perfect donut, two jets in the sky at the same time, or an old couch in the alley that has been spray-painted with the word "Levitra".

I remember thinking "I wonder if that couch was spraypainted before, or after it was thrown out". Had a frustrated ex-girlfriend struck back in a particularly cruel way?

The photo sat in my camera for two days, then on my hard drive for almost a month.

Hi Rob.

Love the website! My sister and I thought this tagged couch might give you a kick. Do you think it is the territorial mark of a softened street thug or of a hardened pharmacist?

Adriano DeCardenas

This, of course, was a little freaky. I clicked back through my old folders and found my Levitra couch.

I did a quick search online, thinking that perhaps Levitra had some secret street meaning.

Unfortunately, an internet search for Levitra is like a parking lot search for Honda. I found too much information. An orgy of information.

I wrote Adriano, telling him about my Levitra couch find. I included my photo from Sacramento.

He wrote back:

I wouldn't have believed you if I hadn't seen
another one today on my way home from practice.
I'll try to snap a pic of it tomorrow. Levitra must
mean something other than
"Viagra Nuevo", like "free" or "for the dog".

ADeC

The next day, he sent this upside-down pink one.

I started asking around online, and I posted a note on the "missed connections" section of Sacramento Craigslist. 

Within an hour, I had four lame responses and two funny ones. Apparently Levitra is hilarious, even when taken completely out of context.

About a day later, a girl named Brenda said she saw a wreck of a couch on Aquino Drive in Natomas, and that it was spray painted. She didn't have a picture, so I went myself to see what I could find.

When I saw it, I knew right away. I started yelling like an idiot in the car.

It was another Levitra couch!

I had no idea where this was coming from, and it was driving me nuts that I couldn't get any more information about it.

At this point, I was ready to march up to a couch's birth house and knock on a strangers door to find the answer. 

I think Adriano was having doubts as to whether I was really finding these couches, or if I was just photoshopping them to trick him. When he found his third Levitra couch, I think he knew there was something larger going on.

I told him about my plan to start knocking on doors the next time I saw a couch. He said he would consider doing the same thing, depending on the neighborhood.  We both wanted to get the bottom of this.

We briefly discussed "shoes hanging from a telephone wire as signaling mechanism".

A Cry for Help

If you know the reason behind the Levitra couches, or if you have a theory, or if you have seen a similar couch in your alley, please let me know.

You can keep any aluminum cans that you find.

Even as I write this, Adriano wrote that his sister saw a couch in Alexandria (Virginia, not Egypt). It looks like Buffalo Bill was making a dress out of this one.

Updates!

On page 2.